Film & Video by & about Robert LaxCompiled by Paul J. Spaeth
[revised 2/06]

Black & White (1946. b&w)Directed by Alexander Eliot & Robert Lax
Description: “Our film consisted of nothing but Harlem shadows on an
August afternoon: Shadows of
shoppers, pot-smokers, gossipers, basketballers
leaping in an empty lot, and finally the shadows of two
horses hitched to an
old-fashioned ice-wagon. Peering through our camera’s view-finder, I couldn’t
quite decipher the horse-team’s sparkly, silent, blue shadow slanting down and
in across the frame;
not until the shadow of the high-wheeled, flat-bed wagon
itself followed, rolling slow, sun-spoked ovals
atop its emerald glow of
ice-blocks.” Alexander Eliot

New Film (1969. b&w. live action. 21 min.)Written by Robert Lax
Directed and Photographed by Emil Antonucci
Voice: Giordano Bruno
Contents: “one stone …” [slow zoom on a stone sitting on a black background] /
“darkness, oh the darkness …” [blank]
“the air and the dream …” [open window with curtains being blown
by wind]
“the maximum capacity of this room …” [close-up office area &
woman’s
face]
“word, word, word …” [talking on a telephone]
“forms, forms, forms …” [street scene showing shop window]
“push, pull, push …” [man’s head (front), woman’s head (back)]
“the first goodbye …” [woman’s face fading in & fading out]
“is, is …” [white teacup on white background, fading in & fading
out]
“even a lie …” [people walking on street, teens dancing, people
standing in a
line]
“1 2 3 …” [hand opening & closing]
“love & death …” [woman’s head & her reflection, smoking]
“in the dark …” [park scene in winter (long-shot)]
“no, no, no, yes, yes, yes …” [man’s head, speaking; woman’s
head in profile
moving in & out
of the frame]
“never, never …” [woman’s face in profile, reading]
“what does it matter if I am an insomniac? …” [slow reverse zoom
of crumpled
pillows on an unmade bed]
“never a root without a tree …” [pan along busy street with many
marquees]
“in me, in me …” [cars seen through tree branches]
“into the heart of the city …” [man hole cover, fade-in to
various buildings,
some office
buildings, some wrecks]
“the first thing to do, …” [sunset scene]
“are you a visitor …” [bearded man]
“i do not wish to touch thee …” [pan up on woman sitting on park
bench]
“he was following a hero …” [pan along a street scene]
“hurry up …” [woman sitting at a table looking at pictures]
“every night in the world …” [pan along building]
“things into words …” [piles of books]
“all of us in the darkened half …” [slow reverse zoom from the
“Flat Iron
Building”]
“You will dissolve before me …” [slow reverse zoom from man
smoking pipe
& his
reflection]
“my son, my son …” [slow reverse zoom of man, dissolve, cut]
“life, life …” [pan around head of a woman]
“i am thinking as i lift one stone …” [slow reverse zoom from
stone in first
shot fade]

The Lion and the Unicorn (1970)A film by Emil Antonucci
The Lion: Jack Medoff
The Unicorn: BobRoca
Journeyman Films

The Man With the Big General Notions (3 min.)Written by Robert Lax
Directed & Photographed by Emil Antonucci
The man: Joseph Messina
Journeyman Films

Some Short Films (10 min.)
Written by Robert Lax
Photographed & Directed by Emil Antonucci
Contents: A & B / Joy & Pathos / Thought / Drama II / Movie / All Pretty Much in
the
Dark / She Finally / A Moment

One Stone (11 min. b&w. 1972)
Based on an untitled poem by Robert Lax
Photographed, edited & directed by Sandy Heblad & Freeman Crocker
Poem read by Charles Ault
The man: Charles Ault
Description: A man is shown walking across a countryside (filmed near
Watkins, Colorado)
and although there is a musical background, we hear no voice until the man stops
to pick up
a stone. As the man looks at and begins to contemplate the object in his hand,
we hear a
voiceover reciting the Lax poem.

Why Should I Buy a Bed When All I Want Is Sleep(55 min. b&w. 1999)A chamber film with Robert Lax by Nicolas Humbert & Werner Penzel (CineNomad)
Contents: “a single room …” [description of house on Patmos]
On writing poems (“…put yourself in the place where grace
can flow to you”)
“our dreams …” (Lax reads to camera, ends with shot of the moon)
[7:26-10:35]
Lax goes to town
“One Island” [13:14-24]
tracking shot of feet walking away along
rocky path
man with donkey stopping at well
old bearded man working on stone wall
dark countryside with white smoke in
foreground
opened book on Lax’s lap
Lax in profile on train
peasant talking with his hands
door of Lax house on Patmos
Lax’s face reflected in window of train
Lax’s hands drawing (shot from over his
shoulder)
man riding donkey (in longshot) showing
stone walls
old couple sitting in their house
[segment ends with the couple talking in Greek]
Lax sitting on floor of his house, talking about the importance
of the present
moment, dream & reality … cut to black … hear his voice
saying “I have
spoken” … cut back to Lax laughing in the same room
[26- ]
Lax talking about art (Schopenhauer: “all art aspires to the
state of music”) …
here & gone … permanence of some art forms is not
something necessarily
in their favor [29:20-
Scene on boat. Importance of the moment. drawing all things into
a single line
Scene on train: camera behind Lax walking in the direction the
train is going …
we see the outside rushing by through windows on both
sides.
Back at home. [30:30- ]
Home on Patmos [33:28-38:06]
“…sounds come and go, but the silence remains”
Scenes: wading into the water / typewriter / reading poem /
talking on
telephone / shopping.
Five Years Later [46:36- ]

Three WindowsHomage a Robert Lax: a video installation by Nicolas Humbert & Werner Penzel (CineNomad)
Description: Three simultaneous films that run continuously in 45 minute
loops, interwoven with each other.
Bibliography: Three Windows. Munich: Distributed by Belleville Verlag, Michael
Farin.
Published Bernhard Moosbrugger & Cine Nomad, 1999.
[part of the Robert Lax Box]